Unless the agency backs down on a proposed rule that would require some campaign committees to reveal their donors, a lawsuit is "inevitable," state Elections Director Eric Spencer told the five commissioners.

In
another life time then Senator Michele Reagan (R-Scottsdale) chair
of the Senate Elections Committee was pushing to unmask dark-money
donors. She sponsored a measure (SB1403) that would require independent
expenditure committees in state and local elections to reveal the “identifiable
contributors” to their campaigns, even though these funds came to them through
a chain of organizations.

"We
open up a very big dark door if we start saying that anything's a go in this
state," she told Laurie Robert columnist for the AZ Republic in December
2013 while preparing her bill. "You're basically saying then our elections
are for sale and not just for sale, but the public can't find out who paid for
it."

Reagan
as a candidate for Secretary of State touted her unsuccessful bill and said the
state must push for more disclosure of dark money." Do not let them fool
you," she wrote. "It does not need to be a complicated issue."

Now that she won the election SOS Michele
Reagan no longer believes the state can require dark-money groups to disclose
who is bankrolling their campaigns. Reagan won't or can’t try to regulate the
dark money that is attempting to buy Arizona's elections but she'll sue anybody
else who's willing to try. Why won’t she at least try to fulfill a campaign
promise?

Thanks for the heads up, would love a chance to respond. My comments...The
Secretary of State's office is concerned with what the Clean Elections
Commission is trying to do with regards to expanding its own authority by a
simple vote of its own board. This should be troubling to any Arizonan,
regardless of how noble the goal of the Clean Election board's mission. What
other agency gets to make their own laws without going through the Legislature,
or more importantly, to the People? Just because the topic deals with dark
money, does that make this process ok? What if the IRS started changing tax
code this way? Would we as a citizenry tolerate it even if some of us agreed
with the tax policy they were creating?Second, there is already a process in
place to deal with dark money violations. The Secretary of State's office
reviews the complaint, the Attorney General has the "badge and a gun" to
subpoena and audit records. We just referred what we believe was a flagrant
violation of a dark money group to the Attorney General last week. Should
groups be subject to government going after them multiple times by separate
agencies for the same crime? The Arizona Republic editorial wrote an opinion
piece that outlines the exact constitutional crisis this could lead to. See
here:http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/07/26/arizona-clean-elections-exceeds-authority/30646501/As
Secretary of State, I have a duty to protect the statutory jurisdiction of this
office, for not just my term, but for others who will serve in this role long
after me. Michele

VOTE SMART

PUBLIC SERVICE

This is intended to be a public service to help
YOU become more informed.
It has not been requested nor paid for by any
political party ,candidate or their representative.
You can verify the Pac's
on Google. Below or the links to ALL
CHECK OUT CANDIDATE IN YOUR STATEBALLOT PEDIAFollow the money..FOLLOW THE MONEYFederal Elections CommissionThomas Library of Congress
To search for a bill, elected official, voting recordTHOMAS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

POLITIFACTS

WRITING CONGRESS MADE EASY

Writing Congress is now easier than ever.
During our relaunch of Congress.org last week, we
removed the requirement that you register and log
in every time you want to write your lawmakers.
Now, all you need to do is click on the words
"Join the Conversation, Write Your Lawmakers"
in the upper-right corner of the site.
Or, you can click on the link below to be taken
to a form to write all of your federal
representatives at one time.Write all your federal representatives at one time.Write all of your state lawmakers at one time.

AMERICA'S DEBT CLOCK

THE DEFICIT

OH Say! USA

BUY MADE IN THE U.S.A.

DIRECTORY

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

WORLD CLOCK

Our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their scared honor to give us a Republic with Liberty and Freedom and Benjamin Franklin upon leaving the signing of the Constitution said "we have given you a Republic, if you can keep it." Can we keep it? Are we going to stand by and let the government we elected take away our Freedom and Liberties? FREEDOM MUST BE DEFENDED, NOW IS THE TIME and WE ARE THAT GENERATION!!! Semper Fi

Amazon SearchBox

Amazon Deal of The Day Sidebar Gadget

"Gimme Five"

Matthew Vadum's

Subversion

American Freedom by Barbara is a non-partisan web site. Content on this web site is expressly that of the contributing author. Opinions expressed by contributing writers are expressly their own and may or may not represent the opinions of American Freedom by Barbara. American Freedom by Barbara is not affiliated with any mainstream media organizations. American Freedom by Barbara is not supported by any political organization or candidates. Responsibility for the accuracy of cited content is expressly that of the contributing author.